It’s been a while since I wrote on this blog. I have been working long hours and traveling to present seminars. Today means a lot to me in a new way so I need to post something. I warn you that this is long but it’s a way of sharing with family unable to be at the events of this week.

Veterans Day 2017 has special sobering and joyful meaning for many relatives and friends. This past week we celebrated the homecoming and burial of an uncle.

My Mom’s only sibling, my Aunt Jeanie, was married 3 June 1950 to Gerald (Jerry) Mueller. His family was from Buckman, Morrison County, Minnesota, but his mother moved to Saint Paul. Shortly after that marriage, the U.S. Army sent Jerry to Korea. He was taken prisoner, at age 20, in February 1951, was tortured, and died there in May of 1951. His remains were there for many decades.

Jeanie never stopped loving this man and her children from her second marriage knew that. In her later years she often asked me if I could find out more about him. There was little online at the time. Fast forward to the 2000s and the Army didn’t share much more publicly. At the Army’s request, his two half-brothers provided DNA samples in order to determine if his remains were among those the Army had received back in 1992.

On August 4^th, his still living brother, Greg, contacted me to share the news that Jerry’s remains had been identified. It was not yet public information, but one of my dear colleagues had always been on the lookout for me and saw the public announcement. In October, the Army finally met with the brother, Greg, and the final details were released about Jerry’s return to Minnesota and the funeral. (more…)

My blog has been pretty quiet recently. All is good, though. A fun house guest, time with a descendant, doing presentations, intense client work, and getting ready for many upcoming presentations to close out Family History Month.

• October 21, Camarillo, Caifornia
  Ventura County Genealogical Society Annual Seminar (full day)
• October 25, Webinar
  Legacy Family Tree “Midwestern & Plains States Level Census Records”
• October 27-28, 2017, Eau Claire, Wisconsin
  All-day seminar and workshop for the Wisconsin State Genealogical Society.
  
• November 4, 2017, Fife, Washington
  All day seminar for the Heritage Quest Research Library

Yes, that last one is in November, but we can still celebrate Family History!

Click on the links in the lines above to register.

In addition to the fun time at the North Star Conference, I began to think about the October 28^th Wisconsin State Genealogical Society Fall Seminar that will take place in Eau Claire. A whole bunch of genealogists that were at MGS will also be at the WSGS Seminar.

On Friday, October 27^th, I am doing a workshop What Next? Developing Step-by-Step Research Plans. Yes, I have done this at several seminars in the area, however, this one will be different. Totally different, in that I have all new record examples for the in-session projects.

On Saturday, I will be doing four presentations: (more…)

I write this while at the 10th Annual Minnesota Genealogical Society North Star Conference. I was privileged to be a speaker all day yesterday and do the banquet presentation last night. I wasn’t tired, I was high on adrenaline. Mostly because I spent the day with 200+ fellow genealogists and also some other speakers. Interesting questions and comments, a great lunch, yummy banquet, and plain ol’ genealogy immersion kept me on that high.

More specifically, I renewed acquaintances with a woman who attended from Florida, a man who traveled from Arizona, a client I had done work for many years ago, and a woman who hasn’t been at an MGS event for ten years, others from the UP of Michigan, North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin. A long time friend from MGS reacted when I mentioned a specific county in southern Indiana. We need to compare notes!

At the banquet, a woman heard me mention the surname Reinhardt and came up to me after the banquet. My (more…)

My fellow genealogists are a caring and sharing bunch. Laura Prescott is one of those people who never asks for help. She has been amazingly strong throughout her cancer battle. She can make me smile, laugh, and cry at the same time as I admire her. One of my favorite stories about her is from a genealogy conference. It was GenTech in Boston, January 2002. We arrived at the conference as attendees not as speakers. Neither my husband or I had remembered to register! Laura went home that night and made us nice typed name tags so it wouldn’t look like we just registered. That’s Laura’s warm heart.

One of her Utah friends, Liz Bell, writes this on Gofundme:

“My dear friend, Laura Prescott, is battling cancer and has recently made the decision to move back home to be closer to family.   She will be making the move from Utah to New Hampshire on September 16th.  Hiring a moving (more…)